Hi there,

This week, Democracy Now! is celebrating our 22nd birthday. Since our first ever show in February 1996, our daily news hour has brought you fearless journalism and hard-hitting news you can trust. Maybe you rely on our daily headlines. Maybe you come looking for the in-depth stories that expose government and corporate abuses of power. One thing you know you can count on is that Democracy Now! is always free—you'll never hit a paywall. How is this possible? Only with your support. In fact, if everyone reading this gave just $4, it would cover our operating expenses for the whole year. Right now, a generous donor will TRIPLE every donation, meaning your gift today will go three times as far. Pretty amazing, right? Please do your part. Take a moment to give right now for our 22nd birthday.

Hi there,

This week, Democracy Now! is celebrating our 22nd birthday. Since our first show in February 1996, our daily news hour has brought you fearless journalism and hard-hitting news you can trust--all without ads or corporate underwriting. How is this possible? Only with your support. In fact, if everyone reading this gave just $4, it would cover our operating expenses for the whole year. Right now, a generous donor will TRIPLE every donation, meaning your gift today will go three times as far. Pretty amazing, right? Please do your part. Take a moment to give right now for our 22nd birthday.

Non-commercial news needs your support.

We rely on contributions from you, our viewers and listeners to do our work. If you visit us daily or weekly or even just once a month, now is a great time to make your monthly contribution.

Related

Topics

Guests

The House is set to vote on a measure Thursday which could lead to Puerto Ricans casting a ballot in a referendum about whether they want to change the territory’s status with the US. [includes rush transcript]

Topics

Guests

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMYGOODMAN: And very quickly, the vote in Puerto Rico tomorrow?

JUANGONZALEZ: Yes, this has gotten very little attention, but there will be a vote tomorrow in the House of Representatives on a bill to authorize a new referendum over the status of Puerto Rico. It’s got about 183 co-sponsors. There’s actually a very good chance that it will pass. However, there is a huge division between the Puerto Rican members of Congress, with Congressman Joe Serrano a prime sponsor of the bill and with Nydia Velázquez and Luis Gutierrez of Chicago, the two other Puerto Rican members of Congress, opposing the bill.

The big problem is Serrano is saying to end the colonial status of Puerto Rico, you must first have a vote over whether Puerto Ricans want a change in status. Yes or no, do you want the current status? Or do you want to change the status? And if they vote “yes” for a change of status, the bill would then offer three choices: independence, statehood or free association, which is the United Nations’ recognized form of a decolonization, whereas the commonwealth supporters of Puerto Rico want to keep commonwealth as a potential choice. And the Serrano bill would not keep commonwealth —-

AMYGOODMAN: Which they have now.

JUANGONZALEZ: Which they have now, and they would not keep commonwealth as a choice. It would only be free association, independence or statehood. So it would be a two-stage referendum. And so, Nydia Velázquez and Luis Gutierrez both feel that this is unfair to those who support the current status of commonwealth, and so -— but it does appear that it’ll be a close vote, and potentially, finally, you could get a referendum for Puerto Rico authorized by the US Congress, which has never happened. All of the other referendums up until now have been referendums that the Puerto Rican government itself held, but which Congress did not officially authorize.

Non-commercial news needs your support

independent global news

Democracy Now! is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Please do your part today.

Get Email Updates

News

Democracy Now!

Editions

Follow

Get Email Updates

Democracy Now! is a 501(c)3 non-profit news organization. We do not accept funding from advertising, underwriting or government agencies. We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work. Please do your part today.